Shadow Madness

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Seven new screenshots from Crave's forthcoming RPG.

By IGN Staff

It's been just more than two months since we last got our hands on a playable version of Shadow Madness, and now Crave has sent along a new batch of screenshots to illustrate the game's progress since then.

Shown in these latest images are two new battle locales and their associated environmental effects. Of particular note is the falling snow in one of the screens, and the almost digitized look of the desert's scenery. Several CG and dialog scenes are also among the bunch.

We'll have more on the game as its February 1999 release nears.

US developers and console role-playing games are two things you normally wouldn't use in the same sentence. That is unless you were pointing out how the genre has remained the almost exclusively stomping ground of Japanese software houses such as Konami, Enix, and Square.

Enter the Seattle-based development studios of Crave Entertainment, a company intent on changing all that. Within its rather modest work environment, the Craveyard team is hard at work creating the first major US-produced role-playing game since Parasite Eve, Shadow Madness.

Headed up by former Square LA staffer Ted Woolsey, the man behind Secret of Evermore and the translation of Final Fantasy III for Super Nintendo, the crew at Craveyard has drawn a good deal of its inspiration from staples of the genre (Final Fantasy VII being the most prominent) but promises to deliver enough innovation to make hardcore fans sit up and take notice.

Story comes first and foremost on the list of essential ingredients for a successful RPG, and the Craveyard gang appears keenly aware of this. Even in its earliest form, the plot and accompanying dialog convey a scope of adventure that looks to rival the best of them. Set in a land of both magic and technology, Shadow Madness is the story of a young adventurer named Stinger on a quest to uncover who ¿ or what ¿ is destroying his land and infecting its inhabitants with a mysterious epidemic called shadow madness, hence the game's title.

Likeable characters are also a prerequisite. Three main player characters lead a large cast of NPCs (non-player characters): the sword-wielding Stinger is joined by Windleaf (a female archer and magic user) and a scythe carrying farming robot named Harv-5. Cutting-edge technology also takes precedence is this 32-bit day and age; not unlike Final Fantasy VII, the game combines polygonal characters and pre-prendered locales. Each character boasts a commendable amount of detail, as do the hundreds of distinct backgrounds.

Shadow Madness also brings its share of innovation to the traditional battle engine. For starters, you'll be able to "dodge" potential monster encounters by hitting the shoulder buttons when a roar is heard on the map screen. It won't be effective 100% of the time, but can potentially help cut down on those progress-impeding random encounters. Once battle begins, you'll have access to three attack styles (guarded, normal, and aggressive); the most aggressive attack leaves you more open after execution, the guarded attack inflicts less damages but increases the chance that you won't get hit after executing it. Furthermore, where many RPGs only have one, Craveyard plans a wide range of fight anthems to set the mood of each battleground.

Rather than simply equipping new weapons, you'll actually be able to enchant them to enhance their usefulness in combat. Beyond this are your traditional array of items and magic attacks, the latter resulting in seamless CG rendered spells in its more advanced stages.

So, can a relative newcomer to the PlayStation development fray really go head-to-head against the Japanese role-playing giants? With its experienced talent and an impressive vision, Craveyard stands a good chance of it. Needless to say, we'll be keeping a close eye on Shadow Madness as its February release date nears.